Flags flew at half-mast across Burma today for the victims of Cyclone Nargis as the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon confirmed that the military junta has granted permission for the World Food Programme (WFP) to use helicopters to distribute aid.
The first day of the three-day mourning period passed in torrential rain and diplomatic prodding of the reclusive generals to allow more international aid after a cyclone that struck two weeks ago, leaving nearly 134,000 dead or missing.
"There are still a lot of supplies needed to get in in the future in terms of food, but not just for now but for some months to come," UN humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Thein Sein.
He said military-run camps in the devastated Irrawaddy Delta for the homeless "seemed well organised" but most survivors were still without shelter.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon ,who is set to visit Burma later on this week, said today that the military junta had granted permission for the World Food Programme to use helicopters to distribute aid to cyclone-hit areas of the country.
The military government in the former Burma has allowed relief flights to deliver supplies to Yangon, the largest city, but had balked at aerial access to the southwestern Irrawaddy delta, where an estimated 2.4 million people were left destitute.
"We have received government permission to operate nine WFP helicopters which will allow us to reach areas that have so far been largely inaccessible," Ban told reporters before departing on his visit to the country.
The junta's delays in allowing access to international aid workers has drawn criticism and warnings that many more people could die in the aftermath of the cyclone that roared across parts of the Southeast Asian country at the start of May.
Ban said he welcomed the government's "recent flexibility" but added that aid workers had so far been able to reach only around 25 percent of those in need.
He said he hoped Burma's reclusive leader Than Shwe would be among senior government officials he meets during his visit. Ban was due to arrive in the Thai capital Bangkok on Wednesday and go to Burma on Thursday.
Ban said a May 25th donors' pledging conference in Yangon would be crucial for the longer term rebuilding of the country, where he said the government had estimated the cost of the disaster at some $10 billion in economic losses.
The army's declaration of a mourning period after the first visit on Monday to the delta since the cyclone by 75-year-old junta supremo Than Shwe, was taken as a possible sign the leadership had woken up to the scale of the catastrophe.
Until the last few days, the junta's attention appeared to have been on a May 10th referendum on an army-drafted constitution intended to precede multiparty elections in 2010. The vote was postponed to May 24th in areas worst-hit by the cyclone.
The official toll is 77,738 killed and 55,917 missing, one of the worst cyclones to hit Asia in decades. The government has estimated the damage at $10 billion.
Historically the military in the former Burma has been suspicious of foreign interference. That distrust has deepened since the wave of international outrage and tighter sanctions following last year's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.